🚀 go-pugleaf

I wrote
> come on, the software that came with your original cube
> still works.  they just don't give it to new customers.
> Actually, this gradual unbundling is a good sign.
 
Stephen Anderson replied

> Sorry Alex, but at least one thing that was unbundled doesn't still
> work: lisp. It was broken as of 2.0; Franz came up with a fix (which
> NeXT didn't ship to upgrade customers for a LoNG time after Franz had
> provided it. Now the upgraded version is broken in 3.0, with no
> indication of any solution in sight.

As far as I know, Lisp is the only unbundled software that doesn't
continue to work.  Both WriteNow and Mathematica continue to evolve and
WRI offers upgrades to existing users at reasonable rates.
I'm sorry that Franz is not supporting their software, but I think
it is misdirected to blame NeXT for that.  They have some obligation
to make it possible to run their software under new OS releases,
but also have an obligation to their investors to obtain a return on that investment.

In the end we all get better software from a healthy competitive market
Who would want to invest in a startup word processor product
if an adequate one came bundled with every machine?  
What incentive do you have to improve your product if you have a captive market
and no competitors?  Do you really want any one company - even NeXT -
deciding what companies and software deserve to prosper, and which
ones all users need to own?  How could anyone do that well, even if well intentioned?
(damn, I'm starting to sound like a Republican (: )

If NeXT deserves any flames in this, its for not pushing Franz hard to
provide at least a minimal upgrade path for their existing customers.
(or make sure that 3.0 was upwardly compatible with respect to Lisp)
I actually think it was very progressive of them to bundle so much software
in the early days, but it wouldn't be a good thing forever.

> I really can't agree that unbundling things like lisp and Sybase (let
> alone WriteNow) is a good sign.

WriteNow and as far as I know Sybase still work.
People can still purchase them - or competing products.
Free copies are just no longer included with every hardware purchase.
This is a sign that the platform is maturing.

There is starting (finally) to be a selection of decent software
to choose from, and less reason to provide new purchasers a security
blanket because they fear being orphaned.  There may be some initial
pain, but its all part of (NeXT's) growing up.

Followups to comp.sys.next.advocacy
-- 
---------------------------------------------------
Alex Blakemore alex@cs.umd.edu   NeXT mail accepted